Play Like a Grandmaster

Rating:
Summary: Practice
Review: Among several books I have learned since when I started study chess, Play Like a Grand Master was the book that really improve my game.

Rating:
Summary: Terrific textbook on planning in the middlegame
Review: Kotov places great emphasis on evaluating a particular position based upon certain standard criteria, and then forming a plan based upon which side stands better. Kotov (a strong attacking Russian grandmaster and pro trainer who qualified in the late 1940's and early 1950's for the championship of the world!) backs up his practical theories with extremely well-chosen grandmaster examples and complete games by Botvinnik, Fischer, Tal, Alekhine, Euwe, Capablanca, Smyslov and Karpov. Brilliant text from 1978, back when chess writers wrote to teach and not to make money. Kotov also spends much of the book on tactics and calculating candidate moves. This book is much better than the recent flood of garbage that has been released upon the public such as the 1998 publication of John Nunn's Secrets of Practical Chess (Nunn's older book Secrets of Grandmaster Play from 1987 is excellent though). Kotov's book is the real deal.

Rating:
Summary: Kotov's best book
Review: This is the best book of the series, better than "Think" and "Train". Play Like a Grandmaster is written in algebraic notation and is worth owning for players rated 1600 and up.